NFL Draft Stock Up: Robert Griffin III and Matt Barkley shine
Let’s take a look back at some of the games over the weekend and do a stock-up stock-down post. The “stock-downs” are usually injuries or a string of bad performances, but I don’t have any for this week.
You can click on the names to read our scouting reports of that player, and you can also go to our scouting report page and read any of more than 120 scouting reports. If you have a player we haven’t written a scouting report for that you’re interested leave a comment and we’ll get to him.
Stock Up:
Robert Griffin III and Matt Barkley
It’s not stock up for us here at NFLmocks, we’ve been mocking Griffin in the top five since early September and wrote that Griffin was a first round pick before the college football season started, but everyone else is finally catching on. Griffin is really very accurate and can makes a lot of the N.F.L. throws, he’s a smart player, a leader, and plays well in big moments. Oh did I mention yet that he’s an amazing athlete.
As for Matt Barkley, twitter was all abuzz asking if Barkley has played himself into the top five, which was weird to me because I thought he’s been there all season. Barkley made a lot of big time throws and had a nice signature win people thought might be missing from his resume. Barkley has good athleticism, excellent poise in the pocket and a nice N.F.L. arm. He continues to get better and is a nice consolation prize for whoever misses out on Andrew Luck.
I’ll just say welcome to the party, everyone.
Quinton Coples, DL, North Carolina
And there’s the Coples everyone was talking about prior to the season. Vs Viringia Tech Coples had 8 tackles, 2.5 Tackles for loss and a sack. Over his last five games Coples has 7 of his 10 tackles for loss. Coples showed the most consistency he has in awhile in the Va Tech game. I’m not sure his stock is technically up because he’s probably not dropping out of the top 10 either way, but it’s good to see him playing better
Chandler Harnish, QB, Northern Illinois
Harnish is a player that is benefiting from the NBA lockout, as Northern Illinois has been making appearances on prime time tv recently. In the last three games Harnish has thrown 10 touchdowns and no interceptions and passed for nearly 900 yards. He’s a nice developmental prospect who is getting a little more love with his play.
Brandon Jenkins, OLB (projected OLB in the N.F.L), Florida State University
All year people (who haven’t been paying attention) have been complaining about Jenkins lack of production. Well in a whacky game vs Virginia, Jenkins had 2.5 sacks and put consistent pressure on the quarterback. This was a good game for him because early last week Tony Pauline had proclaimed that Oday Aboushi was the 4th best OT in this class. Jenkins sure didn’t make him look that way. Jenkins has been asked to do a lot more this year and that’s going to benefit him in the long run as he’s already beginning to learn how to drop back in coverage. It’s not impossible that he’ll be drafted as a 43 DE, but he seems like a nice 34 OLB prospect, possibly the best in this class.
Zeitler had a nice game as Montee Ball and the Badgers ran behind him often. Zeitler has played his way into the second round mix at guard.
Trevathan is a player we’ve loved for awhile and this past weekend he showed why. Trevathan was all over the field vs Georgia. He ended the game (and all stats provided are from cfbstats.com) with 17 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, a sack, and two forced fumbles. Tevathan is a linebacker who plays sideline to sideline and makes a lot of plays. We’ve compared him to Lance Briggs.
Thoughts on players who did well this weekend?
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